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August 7, 2017

Microsoft has started selling the first "affordable" third-party notebooks running its locked-down Windows 10 S. Microsoft announced availability of the Lenovo N23 and N24, which Lenovo unveiled in January. The N23 and N24 for Windows 10 S will cost $249 and $279, respectively, and are available worldwide.

IBM researchers unveiled a new tape storage solution that holds 330 TB of uncompressed data (roughly equivalent to the text of 330 million books) on a palm-sized cartridge. The prototype uses sputtered magnetic tape and was developed with help from Sony Storage Media Solutions and new innovations in tape technology.

Experian is using alternative data to help verify international identities Email addresses are now an integral part of verification and identity risk assessment checks, much like name, address, SSN, date of birth and even phone number. In fact, because of the opportunity to analyze a deeper set of attributes around an email account, it often proves more valuable. On average, 3.5 billion people have 1.7 billion email addresses. 91% of people keep their email for more than two years and 51 percent of people have the same email for more than ten years.

A new study from Juniper Research has found that nearly 6 in 10 (57%) large corporations are either actively considering, or are in the process of, deploying blockchain technology. Amongst companies who have reached the PoC (Proof of Concept) stage, two-thirds (66%) expected blockchain to be integrated into their systems by the end of 2018. However, for issues such as interoperability, the proportion of survey respondents expressing concerns progressively increased as companies proceed towards full deployment, while concerns also rose sharply regarding client refusal to embrace blockchain.

Each of your ATMs has its own micromarket radius full of variables that influence its respective demand. Analyzing how these variables differ between locations and how they impact ATM demand is the key to unlocking the optimal level of surcharge for your network.

Forcepoint has added to its cloud security portfolio new behavior-driven controls that aim to simplify protection of employees, critical business data and intellectual property. New capabilities are now available across the Forcepoint CASB, Forcepoint Web Security and Forcepoint Email Security modules.

WWPass, a global cybersecurity company that provides identity, authentication and access management (IAM) technology, announced the availability of PassHub, a free password manager. Unlike other password managers that require an additional master password or optional multi-factor authentication, PassHub is only accessible through WWPass’ PassKey Lite app, with the goal of helping to ensure the highest level of security and convenience for users.

Savvy loan officers are joining an increasing number of real estate agents who post daily, short-term content on Snapchat and Instagram — so-called disappearing stories — to raise their profiles in their communities. Those stories are said to be helping mortgage professionals build name recognition, increase referrals and reach more of their core audiences.

Branch locations are closing and footprints shrinking, but branches continue to play an important part of the consumer experience. According to a recent JD Power U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, overall satisfaction rates higher among consumers who use both the branch and mobile banking.

Two recent studies have produced some interesting insights about person-to-person payments. One from Auriemma Consulting Group spells out the similarities among users of prepaid cards and P2P services, and suggests that prepaid card issuers could get more usage of their products if they can find ways to link them to P2P services. The other shows just how strong PayPal’s hold in money transfers and P2P and other payments is.

Paypal announced a new deal with Skype that will allow users in 22 countries worldwide to send money to other Skype users through an updated version of the Skype mobile app. To be clear, the feature is designed for sending money between friends and family – not payments for goods or services from a business.

When it comes to on-net fiber in business buildings, Vertical Systems Group revealed in its new U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD report that 11 service providers have the largest presence. The research group said that retail and wholesale fiber providers with 10,000 or more on-net fiber-lit commercial buildings in the U.S. qualify for this new benchmark. The top 11 providers on VSG’s list include a mixture of traditional telcos, cable providers and a competitive carrier: AT&T, Verizon, Spectrum Enterprise, CenturyLink, Comcast, Level 3, Cox, Lightower, Zayo, Altice USA and Frontier.

Qualys aims to address issues of security and visibility with its new app framework, CloudView, which complements existing Qualys services for security, compliance and threat intelligence with real-time monitoring of all enterprise cloud services from a single dashboard.

Just $225M in 2015, sales of SD-WAN gear will hit $1.19 billion this year as organizations use it to resolve challenges created by increasing cloud, mobile, big data and analytics traffic. As organizations look to better connect their remote and branch office employees and provide them better quality network services, SD-WAN will continue to grow.

This article features an interview with Neal Topf, President of Callzilla. The ICMI Global Contact Center Awards recognizes one outstanding outsourcing provider each year. This year’s award recipient was Callzilla.